No one is born a criminal

Behind every crime stands not only the victim, who must never be forgotten, but a question society does not like to ask: how was a person capable of this made? The answer almost never begins at the moment of the crime. It begins much earlier and much more quietly.

Bars are the last page, not the first

A prison deals with a person once everything has already happened: once school, family, and the first choice not made by some adult have all been lost. Punishment is necessary — without it there is no justice for the victim. But punishment does not answer the question “why,” and so it does not prevent the next one. A society that builds only prisons and not what comes before them is doomed to forever chase misfortune instead of getting ahead of it.

Less crime begins in the nursery, not the courtroom

Almost every broken adult fate was once a child who fatally lacked something: attention, safety, one adult who would have believed in him. This is not an excuse — the guilty answer for their choices. But it is an explanation, and without explanation there is no prevention. It is cheaper and more humane to invest in a school, a courtyard, and a family than to later maintain a prison. We pay for childhood either way — the only question is when, and with what.

“No one is born hating another person. People learn to hate, and they can be taught to love.”
— Nelson Mandela

My opinion: to judge a deed is right; to write a person off is short-sighted. A vengeful society and a safe society are two different societies, though both talk a great deal about crime. The real victory over crime is won not only in the courtroom but where it cannot be seen — in the classroom, in the family, in a hand extended in time. We must ask not only “how to punish,” but “how to make sure that tomorrow there is one fewer person to punish.”